Dr Peter Saxton, Director of the Gay Men's Sexual Health Research Group (GMRG) at the University of Auckland, is celebrating the group's two year anniversary.
The GMRG was established in 2013 with seeding grants from the New Zealand AIDS Foundation (NZAF) and UniServices Ltd. It aims to promote research into HIV and sexual health among gay, bisexual, takataapui, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) in New Zealand.
Dr Saxton received a HRC Emerging Researcher First Grant in 2010 while at the University of Otago for an investigation into undiagnosed HIV in a community sample of gay men. The study found that 21 per cent of those infected were not aware that they had HIV. The paper from this study was highly accessed and the findings received widespread news coverage when they were released in 2012 (e.g. New Zealand Herald).
Dr Saxton rates the HIV behavioural research programme as one of the group's significant achievements to date. It has the largest database of sexual partnering among gay and bisexual males in New Zealand, and is well regarded internationally.
The Gay Auckland Periodic Sex Survey (GAPSS) and Gay men’s Online Sex Survey (GOSS) are anonymous repeat cross-sectional programmes that monitor trends in HIV risk behaviours among gay, bisexual, takataapui, and other men who have sex with men in New Zealand.
The surveys are funded by the Ministry of Health and undertaken collaboratively by the University of Auckland, the University of Otago’s AIDS Epidemiology Group, and the New Zealand AIDS Foundation.
Read more about the GMRG on the University of Auckland's website.